Compulsion
by FrankyJ
Summary: A short story I wrote for class. It's the longest of my Original Content stories.


**Compulsion**

The clock next to me read 12:11 PM. I shut my eyes and tried to go back to sleep but the throbbing in my head kept me awake. I still had the taste of bile in my mouth from the night before and my throat felt like a desert. I tried to remember what had happened last night but it was blur. The taste in my mouth became more pronounced. I looked at the clock again: 12:13 PM. Deciding I needed to wash my mouth out, I got out of bed. I had the feeling that something was missing but the throbbing in my head stopped me from thinking about it more. I started towards the bathroom in my suite.

"Damn, Nick, you look terrible," my roommate John said. He was sitting in the common room doing something but I couldn't pull up enough motivation to try to figure out what it was. I grunted in response and continued my slow trek to the bathroom.

As the toothbrush scrubbed away the revolting taste in my mouth my eyes wandered. They mostly stayed down so the bright florescent lights didn't hurt, but when they landed on the bathroom stall I remembered walking into it drunk and puking my guts out. I scrubbed my teeth harder to counter the sudden reappearance of the taste of bile. My eyes had somewhat adjusted to the light and I looked in the mirror to judge how bad I looked. The bright green ring around the pupil of my eye made me stop all movement. I had used my powers recently, in the last day or so given how large the ring was. I couldn't remember using them, so I had to have used them while I was drunk. My free hand went to clasp my necklace, my 'safety' as it were. I wasn't wearing it. Without it I would have been a loose cannon last night. If I didn't figure out who I used my powers on and fix them, they could be permanently damaged.

I don't know when I first used my powers or what happened; however, when I was about thirteen I started to notice that people did what I told them to. Once I realized what I could do I used my abilities on little things, harmless things. I'd get a friend to share his chocolate pudding or a teacher to forgive a late assignment. Back then I didn't realize how dangerous my abilities were. My dad realized that I was magical like him when I was fourteen. He helped train my abilities and taught me to see into a person's soul. He explained that magic and more specifically the compulsion was a genetic trait that manifested around puberty. It's something to do with the brain chemistry but the science is all stuff over my head. My dad warned me that, "Magic snowballs, you might start with small things that people would do for you anyway, but before you know it you're making them do things they would never do normally." How right he was.

By my junior year in high school I didn't even have to think about compelling people it had become second nature. I easily made myself the most popular kid in school. People loved me; teachers, students, other parents, and especially girls. They all liked me but the one girl I liked, Amy, wasn't interested in me at all. Still I got what I wanted so I got her. For all intents and purposes we were a happy couple. Until one day in the spring of that year when I decided I was ready for the next step. We were at her house and her parents were gone having 'decided' to have a date night of their own. The two of us watched a movie and were becoming intimate. She was standing in front of me half naked frozen, caught like a deer in headlights. I didn't understand. She wanted this too, didn't she? Why would she stop? When I looked into her soul I was horrified. When I first met Amy, her soul was a ball of bright swirling colors but at that point her soul was putrid and grey. It felt of turmoil, anguish, and enslavement. How close was I to raping her? Did she even have free will at that point?

I left and never talked to her again. I told my dad everything. How I badly I screwed up and how I didn't mean to do what I did. He fixed my mistake but he never yelled at me or severely punished me. He just sat me down and said that "everyone makes mistakes especially with magic. One day, when you have a choice between what's right and what's easy, you'll make the right choice. That's when you know you're an adult." But I could see the enormous disappointment in his eyes. From then on I stopped using my powers. College was a chance at a new start and the necklace my dad gave me dulled my powers. Instead of being able to compulsions naturally the necklace made giving compulsions like trying to swim while completely tied up. I was able to have genuine, honest to God, connections with other people even if it meant I couldn't control them.

"Look, I just have to study more!" John's angry voice shook me from my thoughts. John almost never studied, especially on a Saturday morning. I walked into the common room and saw that he was yelling at a girl who I recognized. Tina. She was the girl John was hitting on last night who was practically shoving him away the whole time. I couldn't understood why John liked Tina; she almost never gave anyone the time of day and I wouldn't be surprised if she was one of those high-maintenance girls. How did she even get into our suite?

"Please, let's just go out somewhere," Tina said, whining. "It'll be fun."

"I just have to study more." John's reply was short and dismissive. Tina frowned and put her hands on her hips. She leaned forward; her eyes were squinted and she was gritting her teeth like she was preparing to go to war. What the hell is going on? They were acting like completely different people... I had used my powers on them. It was the only explanation. The memories from the end of the night became clearer. John was telling me he was having issues with his grades. How he was trying his best but some of his classes were just too hard. I remembered the words I said to him while looking in his eyes "Just study more. You just have to study more." Where was my necklace in the memory? I couldn't remember. It was still mostly a blur.

"Hey, John?" I asked, my voice strained from my sore throat. He continued to argue with Tina. "John! _John_!"

"What?" His eyes flashed dangerously and his jaw was tensed. I needed eye contact for this to work. I looked past his eyes and at his soul. It was a sphere of flashing colors. Red was the most prevalent. No shock there, apparently Johnny boy was a little upset. I focused my thoughts on my mission, finding and removing the compulsion I had put him under. It was a smaller sphere right on the surface of John's soul. I cursed when I saw that the compulsion had already sunk partially into John's soul. I ripped out as much of the compulsion as I could without hurting him. My head throbbed even worse, but I was successful. Now I just needed to fix Tina's obsession with John.

In the physical world only a few seconds had passed. John shook his head and looked at his homework, then back at Tina. "I'd love to go on that date with you. Just let me clean up my stuff real quick." John said as he ran into his room.

As I looked at Tina my memories of the night before were becoming clearer. We had just left one of the parties; it was earlier in the night than when I had used my powers on John. I wanted to help John and he was so stuck on Tina. John and I were with Tina and her roommate, Lily. Lily, the girl who I had wanted to date since I meet her a week earlier. John and I met them at a party and we decided to walk them home. Lily took John to the side to talk to him about something and I used that time to talk to Tina. "John likes you, and you should go out with him. It'll be fun." I winced at the memory; that was real smooth of me. Apparently I lack subtlety when drunk.

"So, how've you been?" I asked Tina, hoping for that moment of eye contact to fix my second mistake.

"Good." She said dismissively as she watched the room John ran into.

"Okay then," I said awkwardly, trying to think of something to do so I could make eye contact with her.

"Alright, let's go," John said as he threw his jacket on. Tina's smile was brilliant. Sometimes doing the right thing really sucked, especially when it meant making people less happy.

"Wait. Tina," I said quickly. "Have you seen my necklace? Blue stone on a black string. It has a lot of sentimental value to me."

She turned and looked at me quizzically. That was my chance. As soon as she looked into my eyes I looked into her soul. The compulsion was blatantly obvious and I had lucked out because none of it had become permanent. I easily ripped out the compulsion and came back to reality.

"You gave it to Lily last night. Remember?" I needed that necklace back but to just ask for it back… I felt like I was in the back seat of a crashing car. I could see the inevitable disaster but the only thing I could do was hold on for dear life.

"So where do you want to go, Tina?" John asked breaking the awkward silence. Tina's head whipped around. She was blinking rapidly as if she couldn't process what he had just said.

"What?"

"Our date? Where do you want to go?" John got a confused look on his face.

"Oh yeah." Tina's eyes were wide. She took a small step towards the door. "I, uh, just remembered that I have dance practice soon. I'll text you."

She was out the door before John could say a single word. The look on his face was a mix of a kicked puppy and lost five-year-old. "What just happened?" He asked no one in particular.

"Who knows?" I smiled weakly. "Women, right?"

He nodded uncertainly and headed for his room. "I'm going to study some." I wondered whether or not that was really the right thing for me to do. They could have been happy together. My head throbbed again and I remembered my other goal for the day; getting my necklace back.

I ran into my room to get my phone. I needed to meet up with Lily to get that necklace back. As I grabbed my phone I saw that I already had a text from her. It read "wanna get lunch in the caf 1230?" A quick glance at the clock told me that it was only five minutes before 12:30. I sent a hurried confirmation and started to head over. I tried to focus on the memories of last night and what had happened. Lily and John were walking ahead of Tina and me. Then they floated back towards us as everyone got to their dorm. Tina rushed inside but Lily stayed out. John walked back to our room and I talked with Lily.

What did we talk about? I needed to know if I had used my powers on her. I really hoped that I hadn't tainted her; that she was genuinely interested in me and not compelled to do so. But a small part of me didn't care. It was the same part of me that always got what it wanted, even Amy. My thoughts were interrupted as I entered the cafeteria. Lily was already sitting down and she waved me over. She was alone and I took the seat opposite her. She looked cute in her white sweater and I couldn't help but to appreciate how it hugged her body nicely.

She was wearing the necklace. If I strained my eyes I could see the small runes inscribed on the otherwise plain blue stone. "Uh, hey," I said.

"Hey." She smiled. We exchanged some small talk and I kept trying to think of some way to get my necklace back. A small part of me knew I needed to check for compulsions but I was afraid of what I would find. That she would be another Amy. But more importantly I was afraid that I wouldn't care that she didn't have free will and that I hadn't really changed at all. "You alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, fine," I lied. "Just have a bit of a headache."

"Hangover?"

"Yeah," I said sheepishly.

"We did drink a lot last night." She laughed lightly. I could tell she liked me even with the throbbing in my head. Normally I would be ecstatic about that but somehow I knew I was going to be disappointed. I grabbed at the courage to do what I had to. I had to make sure she didn't have any compulsions on her. Her soul was clouded over and swirled with mixtures of grey. Just as I had feared there was a compulsion that was almost identical to the one that was affecting Tina. The compulsion was small though, practically harmless. Lily's soul was nowhere close to as bad as Amy's was.

I questioned if I really did need to remove the compulsion. I thought about how guys go out of their way to make sure girls only see the best side of them. It's almost the same thing isn't it? I knew it would be so easy to just leave things the way they were and I could have the girl. Was it the right thing to do? My dad's disappointed face from so long ago filled my mind. "Magic snowballs." It was addicting and I should know that by now. I had to do what was right not what was easy. I steeled myself for what I had to do.

"I'm really sorry to ask but can I have my necklace back?" I used that moment to remove the compulsion. She lurched back slightly. I really needed to learn some tact. "It's just that it has a lot of sentimental value for me is all. My parents gave it to me and I can't imagine not having it."

"Yeah, I understand." Her face was twisted in confusion. I couldn't tell if it was from the verbal slap in the face or just after effects of removing the compulsion. I took the necklace from her hands and put it around my neck. I could feel the runes activating and my power becoming constricted. It did little to rid me of my disappointment though.

"Hey, why don't we go to the movies next Friday?" I asked, already half expecting to get shot down.

She smiled warmly. "Yeah, I'd love to."

I smiled right back. Definitely the right choice.

I struggled slightly more with the revision of this story. I redid the summery of the main character's past. I wanted to give him a strong reason to not want to use his powers and I feel like I accomplished that. I really struggled with the ending though. I feel like it's better but it doesn't have the 'umpf' that I want it to. I was really unhappy with the first ending and this one is way better in my opinion but I'm still not totally satisfied with it. I just don't feel like it ends the way I want it to. Maybe the story isn't supposed to be done there and I should continue it with another scene or two. It's something to think about in the future.

9


End file.
